Friends Don't Kiss, Do They?

Chapter 9

The ambulance was called. I was wheeled off the football field on a stretcher where we had been practicing. The guys from the basketball team came out of the school gym to see why the ambulance is here. I don't dare to look at any of them, keeping my eyes fixated on the sky above me.

Oh gosh. I can't imagine what Matt must think.

At the hospital the doctor asks me questions about the accident. Mrs O'Hare stays with me until my mother arrives, making sure I was alright. I was given some morphine to ease the pain before being taken to get x-rays done.

When I return to the ward, Mom was waiting in the room with my two brothers. She hurries over to me and crouches down so she is at my level in the wheelchair.

"Hailey, are you alright?" she asks, patting my knee.

I nod.

The nurse helps me up from the wheelchair, even though I was capable of doing it myself, walking me over to the bed. As soon as I was off the chair, my brothers fight over to who should sit in it. Mom scolds at them to behave. The nurse kindly tells my brothers that the wheelchair was for patients only.

While the nurse helps me to get comfortable, Mom leaves the room with my brothers to speak with Mrs O'Hare outside the room. Once I was comfortable, the nurse bandages to my wrist, which was swollen and bruised. The injury was too swollen to put a cast on, so in the mean time it was being wrapped up with a bandage until it has gone down.

It's almost two hours later until the doctor came in to check up on me, and then to inform my mother how badly broken my wrist was. I had snapped the bone in two places. I was still surprised I had broken it. I have fallen plenty of times while practicing my routines, but I have never injured myself badly.

The doctor examines my wrist, which was still swollen. He tells Mom that he wanted me to stay overnight, and if the swelling has gone down by tomorrow morning, I was able to be discharged as soon as my wrist was placed in a cast.

Mom leaves me once the doctor left, promising me she will be back in the morning. I wanted her to stay, but my brothers were starting to get restless. They were only seven and I couldn't blame them for no longer wanting to hang around the hospital, bored out of their minds.

I reach for my phone from the inside of my bag that sitting on the table beside me. Mrs O'Hare had brought my bag to the hospital. I find several missed calls from Emma, and then a text message asking me if I was alright. I return her text explaining what happened.

I log onto Facebook, only to find that Samantha had humiliated me. She had filmed me being wheeled into the ambulance, laughing at how I was such a klutz with the stunt I had pulled.

I decided to call Bailey to let her know what happened. It was no doubt she would have seen the video Samantha posted, or even heard about if from Tayvon and Matt.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Bailey asks when she answered the phone. "Matt told me what happened."

Of course he did.

"Even if he didn't tell her, you would have found out on Facebook," I tell her. "Everyone is laughing at me on Facebook, all thanks to Samantha."

"Ignore what they say, Hailey. It was just an accident. What happened anyway?"

"I don't know. I was doing the routine and felt dizzy. I blacked out and when I woke, my wrist felt like someone was drilling a jackhammer through it."

"You must have landed on it hard. You were practicing on the mat weren't you? Wouldn't that prevented you from hurting yourself?"

"It's supposed to, but I guess I landed on it the wrong way."

"How many places did you break it?"

"Two. I'm still at the hospital. The doctor is waiting for the swelling to go down before he puts a cast on it. I should be able to go home tomorrow."

"Would you like me to stop by tomorrow?"

I smile into the phone. "Yeah, that would be great if you could."

I wanted Emma to come as well, but she has work in the morning. As for my other friends, I have no idea what they had going on, but it would be nice to have them come visit so I had someone to talk to before I leave with Mom.

The only person I was unsure about visiting me was Matt.

* * * * *

I sleep on and off during the night. I skipped dinner that was delivered to me. The roast beef with gravy and vegetables filled my nostrils, but I didn't touch the food. I could just eat the vegetables, but with all of the morphine I was given was making me weary.

In the morning I didn't touch the scramble eggs and toast I was given. My stomach grumble, but I ignore the hunger pains. Mom comes in an hour after breakfast was served. My brothers weren't with her. Our neighbour was taking care of them, that way they wouldn't be too much of a handful here or be bored. It was good she had shown up at the right time. The doctor came in to check my wrist. The swelling was going down, and he said he will put a cast on before I leave.

Bailey shows up about after half an hour Mom does, carrying a bouquet of flowers she had brought from the gift shop down stairs. She also had a box of chocolate, which I wasn't quite happy to see, but at the same time I was grateful she had come to see me.

She greets us both, setting the flowers and chocolate on the bedside table.

"Thanks, Bailey." I smile. "You know you didn't have to give me any chocolates."

"I know, but I figured it will make you feel better. After all, chocolate fixes everything."

Not exactly. It doesn't fix the problem of kissing your friend at the wrong time, and making a complete fool out of yourself.

I thank her for a second time.

Mom decides the leave the two of us alone. Bailey takes a seat beside my bed.

"How are you feeling today?" she asks.

I nod. "I'm alright. A little tired from the morphine I have been given for the pain. The swelling is going down so the doctor is going to put on a cast before I leave today."

"That's good to hear."

I look down at my wrist. I stare at it for a long time, wondering whether or not if I should confess to Bailey about what happened to Matt and me. She deserves the right to know about it. I glance up at her. "Has Matt said anything about me?"

"Like what?"

"Bailey, can you keep a secret for me, please? I don't want anyone to know, especially Samantha."

"You know you can trust me." Bailey gives me a warm smile.

I tell her about the kiss, and how I was such a fool to do it. When the time is right, she tells me to talk it out with Matt, who apparently has also been trying to avoid me as well.

How are we going to talk this out if we are both avoiding each other?

A/N: I have decided to enter this story into the Watty Awards. Please support this story. It might not be completed it yet, but I promise to work hard on this story to complete it. I'm going to try to upload at least two chapters once or twice a week.